Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

They are ocellated turkeys. I first saw them when I traveled in Guatemala, but could not realize that  they were in wild.  I was not surprised that some people mistake this type of turkeys for peacocks.  Both of them are birds with similar and beautiful teal colors and patterned feathers covering their bodies, especially when a male opens his fan in order to attract a female's attention.  After day by day study, maybe the autumn feeling urged me to paint a pair of ocellated turkeys in front of a farm, because I haven't seen them in North America.  The more I got into the painting, the more I felt the love between this pair of birds.  I really didn't want to think about Thanksgiving.  I would love to create an environment where they are happy as long as they should live, no matter whether they lived in wild or on a farm. After the painting was done, I was happy for the result.  I posted a thread at http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages...

Chinese New Year is one of the most important traditional holidays and is celebrated on the first day of the year of the Chinese calendar (lunisolar). In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, or "Lunar New Year". 2014 is the Year of Green Wood Horse in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, starts on January 31. Like many other cultures, horse is one of Chinese favorite animals, horse is not only a symbol of traveling, but also a sign of speedy success. The horse is an intelligent animal. Horses need to be trained to become useful to humans. Interestingly, Chinese wouldn't let horses do farm work. Instead, all the farmland jobs go to the ox. This is because Chinese believe that horses can help human to win battles. Sitting on a horses back implies that the person is from a noble or higher ranking family. So people born in the Horse year usually care about their dressing, outlook and speech. So place a horse or many horse symbols around to en...

First, I check my last year's photos, of course there was no way that I could tell if it was the same hummingbird mother.  But I realized that it was exactly the same date- May 20th that I took first a couple photos of the baby birds last year.  What an interesting coincidence! So, I watched them more carefully, found out many differences between those two mother birds. This year's would rest on the potato tree, and spend a lot of time cleaning her feathers.  I didn't think that she fed her babies as frequent as the last one did.  Even the babies behaviors were quite different too.  Like mother, like children! They started to clean their feathers in such a crowed nest, one already flipped its wings, and would stand on the edge of the nest more often.  The most funny thing I saw that the baby birds pushed their poos out of the nest, squirting into the air.  Last year, the baby birds only sat in the nest, sleeping or waiting for being fed, the mother'...

The weather was unusual this year, the temperature jumped up and down, one week like winter with heater on, the next week felt like summer. We didn't even feel the spring! I had been wondering for a while if the hummingbird mother was coming back to the same nest or nearby to build a new nest to raise baby birds again. It was still too cold for them after April, then I gave up on the idea. Our neighbor has very large potato tree (Solanum erianthum) which blooms with blue flowers all year round. I had noticed that there was a hummingbird hanging on a dead brunch there cleaning its feathers above our fence. I checked the leftover nest from last year, I thought even if the hummingbird comes back, it might not use the same old one... It was perfect weather during the Mother's day weekend. Sunday morning, I saw a hummingbird fly by outside our window. Immediately, I spotted that she was feeding babies at exactly the same nest, but newly rebuilt, and more solid than t...

“What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”   ― Karl Lagerfeld As much as I enjoy painting, photography is one of my favorite things to do.  Not because I have to collect enough images for my original art, also I think digital media gives us more creative space, with such a wide range of tools available for self-expression, we should update our skills, and be creative as much as possible.  So get your camera ready. During shopping time, I carry my camera sometimes too.  I asked this young lady if I could capture a photo of this cute puppy Chihuahua in her hand, of course she was happy and I was able to keep this lovely photo. (Please click the image to enlarge) I was looking for a laundromat when I traveled in Mexico.  These two dogs suddenly were running in front me.  I captured their adventure by holding my camera with one hand, the other hand was still c...

I believe that communication is the main reason to prove that we are social animals, just like horses and dogs. I love to study the relationship between humans and animals, and create a painting on canvas to tell a story through my visual language, my imagination to my viewers. It is why I paint differently rather than just copy a photo. Also, it helps me to learn more and understand better living beings after each painting.  "A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words.  "  - Beryl Markham "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."  - Unknown "A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence." ...

Like most artists, I love painting animals too:-)! No matter if they are pets or animals in nature, they all have their own expressions. Before I start to paint or draw on canvas or paper, I usually study how to capture individual or groups of any kind of living creatures. Doesn't matter in my vibrant color palette or in a duo-tone drawing or if it is in a more realistic style to more abstract. The composition is always my first priority, and then the movement, and then the expression. What I believe is always to pay more attention to everything surrounding daily life, how the animals live, where, and what they do etc.. It helps me to find more subjects to paint. Actually, I never run out of ideas to paint. And day by day, I can add up more experience, when I am ready to paint the subject, even if I don't have enough study materials, there is a lot of information in my mind already. So, I can just follow my my feeling to create them on canvas and bring them to life. Th...

In Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. It begins on January 23 this year and ends on February 9, 2013 (if your new baby were born during this Lunar year, we call him/her a dragon baby). The Dragon is the fifth sign, which consists of 12 Animal signs. The characteristics of the Dragon Sign are tempered by one of the five Chinese elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth (like other 11 Animal signs). Every 60 years goes through a full cycle. For example, 1952 is the Year of Water Dragon, 2012 is the Year of Water Dragon again. The Dragon is a creature of myth and legend. In ancient China, the Dragon is the imperial symbol, the sign of the emperor, or the male element Yang. The Dragon is the symbol of power and wealth. Today, it is the ultimate auspicious symbol signifying success and happiness. May the celestial Dragon bring great luck to everyone. You can see there are a lot of dragon signs and symbols in China if you have visited the country. E...